This invention relates to the art of cooking, more especially to the simultaneous, essentially continuous roasting, by means of a rotisserie, of vertebrate animal carcasses, for example all types of edible fowl, primarily chickens. The rotisserie is characterized by its adaptability to a mobile trailer which houses an endless conveyor wherein opposed chains extend to form a lateral transport conveyor on external walls of an extended cooking housing. The housing is exposed to the atmosphere and adapted to radiate heat from its pit by means of such particulate fuel as mesquite coals. Transverse spits laden with the carcasses are set rotatably onto rod carriers of the conveyor and after roasting the spits are readily removed from the rod carriers and from contact with an associated spit rotating drive. Unique to the spits are spaced-apart, engageable hooks which support carcass hold-on straps upon which legs and wings of the fowl may be retained such that when impaled on tines of the spit, five aligned and slightly overlapping fowl may be placed for rotational cooking. The prior art is represented by the following United States Letters Patent.
______________________________________ INVENTOR DATE PAT. NO. DESCRIPTION ______________________________________ Alderson, E. M. Oct., 1898 611,595 Broiling and Toasting Device Lekometros, M. May 1936 2,039,541 Barbecuing Appa- ratus Hudson, S. J. April 1949 2,467,480 Portable Grill Ebin, B. Oct., 1953 2,655,096 Meat Broiling Apparatus Watts, J. G. April 1962 3,028,801 Barbecue Spit Construction Zenos, Steven May 1973 3,734,740 Continuous Food Cooking Device Hildebrand July 1977 Des. 244,903 Frankfurter Roasting Stick Simmerman et al. Dec., 1989 4,887,727 Garment Hanger Caddy ______________________________________
The present combination is unique to the mass cooking and processing of multiple carcasses for large gatherings of persons, the process generally being referred to as a rotisserie cookout system.